We all have to eat. Here's a few tips on saving money and the environment, all while keeping your crew happy and healthy.
Green Production Tip # 6 The Trouble With Bottles
We all need it, but here's how to get it without the waste and toxins.
http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/blog
Green Production Tip # 5 Phantom Power
It's like a bad horror movie.
These are simple things you can do around the office and home to save energy and money.
Green Production Tip # 4 Generators
GOT POWER?
Here's the next installment in our Green Production tips.
Saving energy will save you money and with a small production, every penny counts.
Tomorrow we will have a guest Blogger. One of our producers, Amy DeCorte, will be talking about her experiences with the 100 mile diet. Should prove to be very entertaining as well as informative.
Green Production Tip # 3 PAPER
Cutting back on paper is easier than you think. Check it out.
Don't forget to sign in with your facebook account on the right to leave comments and share with friends.
And if you're not a producer yet, become one by clicking here.
Green Production Tip #2 Post Picture.
Check us out every Monday for a new tip. Today's is on the Post Production picture process and how you can save some money and keep the planet beautiful.
Thanks to the good folks at REDLAB Toronto for their support.
Click on the "HQ" button in the player for a higher quality image.
Don't forget to sign in with your facebook account on the right to leave comments and share with friends.
And if you're not a producer yet, become one by clicking here.
Happy Earth Day!
In honor of this day reserved for keeping the planet beautiful, and our commitment to making our productions green, I present to you the first video in a series on greening your production.
Get out today and do one thing that will help make the world a little cleaner and in doing so, you'll be helping future generations enjoy the same beautiful planet we do today.
Cheers
Casey
Or download the podcast by clicking here
Now you can produce a movie with Kevin Smith
Here is the video.
Don't forget, that $10 is CANADIAN!! that's like, $8 bucks US!! So sign up today!
Ok, so back when I started this project, my first “Celebrity” endorsement came from Times of London correspondent, Chris Ayres. He found me on Myspace after I listed his first book, “War Reporting for Cowards” as one of my recent favorites (I’ve read it twice since). He bought 5 frames and wrote a great little blog piece about what I was doing.
Fast forward, Chris has written a new book. I just finished reading it and I have to say, CHECK IT OUT!
“Death By Leisure” is hilarious, insightful and so self-deprecating that you can’t put it down. A cautionary tale of excess that every member of Gen X & Y can learn from. Chris hit the nail on the head with this one. (On a spoiler side note, he and I both met our significant others through the magic that is Craigslist.)
Pick up a copy, you’ll learn a thing or two about while being thoroughly entertained.
I ripped the following off of his website because I’m not that eloquent in paraphrasing such a superb story.
From the publisher:
Can one man, acting alone, melt the ice caps and bankrupt the global economy? He can try.
All Chris Ayres ever wanted was everything: a supermodel girlfriend, a clifftop bachelor palace, a fleet of chrome-rimmed SUVs. The way he saw it, nothing could stand in his way. Nothing, that is, except for being broke, prematurely bald, and living in a remote sheep-farming village in Northern England.
So he moved to Los Angeles—just in time for a man named Alan Greenspan to invent cheap money. Really, really cheap money. Before he knew it, Ayres had a million-dollar home and a credit-fueled life of leisure and luxury. Not to mention a cushy job as the showbiz correspondent of a London newspaper.
But, uh . . . those idiots you keep hearing about? The ones who brought down the economy by maxing-out on easy cash? The ones who never knew when to stop, who indulged in such mindless self-gratification it would take the combined atmospheres of twenty-five planets just to absorb their carbon emissions? Yep, that was Ayres.
For a while, of course, everything worked out perfectly. For a while, Ayres looked almost like a success. He crashed Michael Jackson’s final, epic birthday bash at Neverland Ranch. He took a supermodel to Hollywood’s biggest gala in a decade. He drank foie gras pina coladas, smeared caviar in strange places, commuted to a thousand-dollar-a-night bunny ranch in Nevada, and bought a TV so large it could beam messages to extraterrestrials. He even met a wife—through an ingenious internet scam.
You could say that Ayres’s excess was almost Gatsbyesque, except that Gatsby never had an adjustable rate, negative-amortization mortgage from a bank that was recently seized by the feds, or a car that was leased from a company that specialized in borrowing depreciation from the Chinese.
But of course none of it could last. Ayres tap-danced around one catastrophe after another, but finally, the apocalypse caught up with him. It’s funny how the 2000s turned out, isn’t it? Or maybe not so funny, now that the banks are going down faster than the oceans are rising and the Great Depression II is here.
Still, as Ayres says, in the long run: there is no long run. So why not enjoy what’s left while you can?
Well if you’ve been following the news for the last 5 days, you’ve probably seen Billy Bob Thorton’s ‘Blow Up’ on CBC’s Q with Jian Ghomeshi.
Well proof that you should be kind to us Canadians came full circle on the HOLLYWOOD ACTOR/SCREENWRITER and apparently musician.
He was greeted at the intro to his Massey hall show with boos and taunts of “Here comes the gravy”.
Was Booed out of a Baseball game, and then his band “The Boxcutters” (is that a reference to a 911 weapon? how un-appropriate) canceled the rest of their Canadian tour. Apparently some of the members had “The Flu”. More like Canadians were sick of them.
So in the spirit of Jest (and shameless self promotion) I doctored up this video.
Take it with a grain of salt and come be a producer on the film. http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com
Well now you can producer a movie with Kevin Smith. How is this possible you might ask?
One of our producer’s, Amy Decorte, braved the Q&A at the Bloor Cinema on Monday evening with the intent to persuade him to sign up to mymilliondollarmovie.com.
Well first he blasted me for not being there, saying he would have done it if I had come and asked personally. He then went on to advise her that, as a producer, she should have grabbed me by the balls and dragged me down there.
Well this evening, Amy did just that (although at no time did she touch my balls). We watched Dogma, which I hadn’t seen since the first time I saw it in the Theatre and I gotta say, I liked it then and I still like it now.
Amy waited again in line. When she approached the Mic, Kevin recognized her from the night before and he quickly deducted who I was. You could tell he was going to try a get out of it but quickly changed his mind. He dug deep into his pockets and told me that we would get what ever her pulled out.
I was preparing for the inevitable joke. Some lint, gum, a used condom or perhaps some timbits. But to my chagrin, out came three $20 bills!!!
Then the proud moment came when I got to shake his hand and accept the money. i handed off my card and must say, was quite thrilled. I’ve always admired Kevin’s body of work and how he has been able to stay true to himself and tell his stories while competing in the Hollywood machine.
After a beer, I decided to stick around for the final screening of the evening, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. As I waited in line, I thought about the last 2 years I’ve spent on this project and I have to say, It has all been worth it.
I can’t wait to make this movie and I can’t thank all of you enough for your support.
It’s late now and I really need to get back to another writing gig that is actually paying the bills right now.
What ever it is you’re doing, I wish you the best.
Cheers
Casey
P.S. here is the video version … and Kevin, if you’re reading this, I hope you like the film.
posted by:
Casey
in Casey, Hollywood on
January 18, 2009 @ 5:00 am
| comments: 0
Just a quick note: the Trailer for the new X-men Origins movie came out this week and in it are some awesome clips of Home town boy, KD (Dukes makes Keamy look like a fuckn’ pansy).
posted by:
Casey
in Casey, Hollywood on
January 14, 2009 @ 11:36 pm
| comments: 0
With the Golden Globes behind us, I figure I should get these off my chest before everyone says “Oh, he just liked the winners”.
There are a few obvious films that I think really stood out in 2008, and a few that flew under the radar but should still be checked out.
I’ll start with the big ones.
The Dark Knight. Well I’ve loved the Batman franchise through the ups and downs and Chris Nolan has really created a masterpiece here. It transcends the super hero genere and is an epic story. (on a side note, I’m thrilled Ledger won the golden globe for his role. It really was stellar).
Iron Man was a lot of fun. Nothing award winning, but a dam good set up to a franchise. Reminds me of what Brian Singer did with X-men so many years ago. Lets hope Faverau (the director) sticks with the story line for at least 3 films and doesn’t fuck it all up like Ratner did with the 3rd X-men.
Slumdog Millionaire. Just plain awesome. Take a date to this movie. I thought it was going to be a little cheesy but Danny Boyle knocked this one out of the park. I liked it so much I saw it again the next day.
Milk. Now I know some people might find the story not their cup of tea, but I think everyone should see this movie. It is truly inspirational and further strengthened my resolve to never give up on my dream. The cast is just brilliant and I personally think this is Van Sant’s best film.
Gran Torino. Well after watching Midnight in the Garden of good and evil, I swore that I would one day meet up with Clint Eastwood and waste 2 hours of his life for the pain her put me through. But he has redemed himself with this remarkable funny and touching story.
A Disney film that wasn’t crap (and that is a hard sentence to type) was the animated Wall-e. I’m sure you’ve seen the ads and trailers so I’m not going to post it, but if you haven’t seen this cautionary tale, I suggest you sit down with the kids (or if you don’t have kids, someone as immature as myself) and enjoy the ride. Like all Pixar films, there is loads of extras for adults.
Now on to some flicks you might not have heard about.
I blogged about it before but it bears repeating. The Fall by Tarsem, is a lush, visual orgy. An unconventional fairytale that ties back into the art of film making itself. Trailer is here. It was presented in North America by Spike Jonze and David Fincher so you know it is going to be nothing short of amazing.
One of my favorite films of the year, and maybe even the last decade, is Son of Rambow. It could very well be the Goonies of the new millennium. This is a film for the whole family, if your family isn’t into Disney crap. You can see the trailer here.
As always, the Cohen Brothers delivered with a brilliant story in which nothing really happens. Burn After Reading is an amazing addition to their already remarkable list of must see films. Not only well directed, but the actors delivered brilliant performances. Brad Pitt even stepped up to a role that harkens me back to his performance in 12 Monkeys.
And speaking of Mr. Pitt, he and David Fincher re-teamed for the first time since Fight Club (one of the best films ever), of the curious case of Benjamin Button. I thought the story was very well told, Pitt’s performance captivting and Fincher did a great job directing this epic tale.
Now a lot of people didn’t like these next two, but they can go fuck themselves because I think they’re brilliant comedies.
Zack and Miri make a Porno. which has the usual Kevin Smith humour wrapped up in a story that is a little more mature than his previous works.
Be Kind Rewind, of which had the privilege of seeing this at an advanced screening with the director in attendance and it was magical. I was getting set up to launch the press campaign for my website/film and to see a community come together like that was truly inspiring. It’s also funny as hell (if you’ve got a real sense of humour).
I’ve yet to see the Wrestler but I’m excited too and am sure it is everything people are making it out to be.
Now I’m not going to get into all the films I didn’t like this year… accept for one. Now holy fuck, but someone has to put an end to this crap. This could very well be the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Who the fuck in Hollywood let “The Happening” slip by!?!? I mean after Lady in the water was such a bomb, why let this pile of crap come out. Now I consider myself an environmentalist, but don’t try and tell me that relaying a moral should trump a good story, or good direction for that matter. The acting wasn’t bad so much as the actors didn’t stand a chance with the shit material.
I was on a plane and it was the only thing I hadn’t watched on their menu and I gotta tell you, this was like the worst traffic accident in history and I had to slow down and stare. You should avoid this film at all costs. In fact, if you’re in the video store and see it, hide the box cover under something else, sparing someone the pain and anguish of the torture that is this piece of shit.
One thing bears mentioning before I sign off. This is one of the harder things I’ve had to type. But I couldn’t end a commentary on they past years films without mentioning (and here comes the pain) Tom Cruise’s performance in Tropic Thunder. I think the film makers were brilliant in not announcing his performance because after the massive marketing hype behind the project, this was the only surprise left and he is absolutely hilarious!!
Well, thanks for reading my rant and here’s to making MY film in 2009!
Atom Egoyan’s film, Adoration, is also in competition this year.
I want to wish the film makers the best of luck. Like lat year’s JUNO, these films are helping to prove to the world that Canadian cinema can hold it’s own on screens outside of the great white north.
(on a side note: I went to see Son of Rambow last night. I highly recommend this brilliant British film to movie goers of all ages. It is the best youth orientated movie I’ve seen since The Goonies. Not only are you guaranteed a laugh, but you’ll be leave the theater feeling good.)
